February Book Review – The Modern-Day Assistant, Lucy Brazier
Described as the ultimate guide to developing your abilities and reaching your full potential at work, The Modern-Day Assistant is a brilliant pulling together of author Lucy Brazier’s The Modern-Day Assistant course, Executive Support Live, Executive Support Magazine and lessons from Lucy’s time as the publisher of Executive Support Magazine and trainer.
Pulling together over 12 years of experience training assistants, talking with executives, managers, HR leaders and based on respected research sources and business books, Lucy has distilled information into a logical and accessible format for assistants no matter where on their career journey they are.
I (as you can see in the picture below) went through three packets of post-it flags tagging the information I wanted to reference in my own training courses, use in how I operate from a business perspective and things I want to dig deeper into for my own development.
Right from the start (literally in the introduction) Lucy poses four hard-hitting questions.
- What are you professional ambitions?
- What are your current boundaries and authority?
- What are your strengths and what are your weaknesses?
- When was the last time you felt highly motivated?
“This book will inspire, motivate, challenge and excite you by exploring the opportunities that exist in this role when you understand your power and contribution”
It doesn’t get much more in-your-face positive and motivating than that! And that line I have quoted is right there on page 3!
Having had the privilege of attending The Modern-Day Assistant early on in the development of the course, as well as attending Executive Support Live, reading the many articles in Executive Support Magazine and following Lucy on social media, as well as being a trainer in the administrative profession myself, I found this book an excellent one-stop shop for an overview of how to be a Modern-Day Assistant. Was there information that was new to me, not really but that doesn’t diminish the importance of this book for our profession. Will I reference material in my training events, absolutely. Did I agree with everything in the book, no some elements don’t resonate for me in a New Zealand context. Are there ideas I should be utilising in how I operate as a business owner, you bet. Do I recommend this book, 100%, it is a book all administrators should have on their desks and be referring to regularly.
